1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to an apparatus and method for obtaining and/or calling a forwarding telephone number. More particularly, it relates to an apparatus and method which automatically downloads a forwarding telephone number from a central office or telephone during a first telephone call, allowing a second call to the forwarding telephone number.
2. Background of Related Art
The number of telephone numbers in the United States is proliferating at an increasing rate due among other things to an increased consumer demand for multiple telephone lines to accommodate such uses as facsimile machines, internet access, e-mail services, etc.
Occasionally a person""s telephone number changes, either permanently or temporarily. If a person or business moves, the word may not reach all possible callers that their former telephone number is no longer the preferred number for reaching the person or business. Moreover, a person may be in transit or otherwise moving from telephone to telephone and may desire, at least at certain times, that they be called at a telephone number other than the one which was originally called.
In the case of a permanent move, most telephone companies provide a service for a limited time which provides a voice message to all callers indicating that the called telephone number is no longer in service, and that a new telephone number should be used. Then, the voice message played by the central office typically includes a verbal recitation of the new telephone number. Such conventional forwarding information is useful and allows a caller to get in touch with the intended called party, but requires the caller to write down the new telephone number, and then manually dial the new forwarding telephone number. This requires additional time and also requires that the caller have a pen and paper handy (which may not always be the case-particularly if the caller does not expect that the called party""s telephone number has changed). Moreover, the forwarding information is given to all callers no matter who they are.
Conventional central office techniques either play a message to the caller indicating the new telephone number but don""t automatically forward the call, or invisibly forward a telephone call without indicating to the caller the actual telephone number ultimately called. The former situation requires more time on the part of the caller as well as a pen and paper, while the latter situation does not provide the detailed forwarding information to the caller necessary to avoid a repeated call to the same original telephone number.
If the originally called telephone line remains active, a telephone answering device or other voice messaging system can answer the call and play an appropriate outgoing greeting message to all callers alerting them to a forwarding telephone number. However, if the user is only temporarily at a different telephone number, then they must frequently switch between an outgoing greeting message which includes verbal forwarding information when away and a normal outgoing greeting message which does not contain verbal forwarding information when the user is local to the telephone.
FIG. 5 illustrates a conventional telephone answering device 11 capable of answering an incoming call from a calling party""s telephone 13 using telephone lines 15 and 16.
In particular, as shown in FIG. 5, a calling party""s telephone 13 is connected to a telephone company central office 19 via its telephone line 15, and a telephone answering device 11 is connected to the same or different telephone company central office 19 using its respective telephone line 16. Within the telephone answering device 11, the telephone line 16 interfaces with a telephone line interface (TLI) 12 which provides the conventional isolation, DC and AC impedance as required by relevant telephone company standards.
The telephone line interface 12 also provides a ring detect signal to a controller 23. The controller 23 can be any suitable processor, e.g., microprocessor, microcontroller, or digital signal processor (DSP).
A call information detector/receiver 31 (e.g., a Caller ID detector/receiver) is also provided to receive relevant call related information, e.g., a telephone number and/or household name of a caller, transmitted by the central office 19 to the called party before the incoming call is answered. The call related information may be stored in relevant memory and/or displayed on a display 33. The telephone answering device 11 further includes an alpha-numeric keypad 29 and other buttons relevant to the conventional operation of a telephone answering device, e.g., for PLAY, RECORD, REWIND and FAST FORWARD control of outgoing greeting messages and stored voice messages.
In operation, after a desired number of ring signals, the controller 23 typically instructs the telephone line interface 12 to place the telephone line 16 in an off-hook state, and instructs a voice recorder/playback audio module 25 to play an outgoing greeting message on the telephone line 16 to the calling party. Thus, to inform a caller about a forwarding telephone number, a user would conventionally record an appropriate outgoing greeting message such as xe2x80x9cHi. Please call me at (202) 555-1212xe2x80x9d. The user presumably desires for the caller to call again at the new forwarding telephone number, but the caller may choose to nevertheless leave a voice message at the telephone answering device. Thus, upon completion of the outgoing greeting message, the calling party can leave a voice message in voice memory 27 of the telephone answering device 11 under the control of controller 23.
Although the conventional methods of providing verbal forwarding information to a caller are useful, they have shortcomings. For instance, a central office typically forwards all callers invisibly to the caller, who in that instance will not know the actual telephone number to which they are calling, or are provided with a verbal indication of a forwarding telephone number requiring the caller to grab a pen and paper and hopefully jot down the correct number. If the telephone number is not written down before the message completes, oftentimes the caller must call again to re-listen to the missed portions of the verbal forwarding message.
Thus, there is a need for apparatus and a method which provides forwarded telephone number information to a caller, either in a temporary or permanent forwarding situation, in a manner which does not require a user to manually write down the telephone number for callback.
In accordance with the principles of the present invention, a forwarding telephone number receiver for use in a telephone comprises a data receiver adapted to receive downloaded data corresponding to a forwarding telephone number, and storage for maintaining the received downloaded data corresponding to the forwarding telephone number.
In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, a telephone comprises a telephone line interface adapted to interface the telephone to a telephone line. A processor is adapted to control operations of the telephone. An automatic telephone number download module is adapted to download a forwarding telephone number to the telephone.
In accordance with yet another aspect, a telephone answering device comprises a forwarding telephone number download module, a telephone line interface, and a processor adapted to control operations of the forwarding telephone number download module and the telephone line interface.
A method of downloading a forwarding telephone number to a caller in accordance with the principles of the present invention comprises receiving a first telephone call from a calling party over a telephone line, and downloading data corresponding to a forwarding telephone number to the calling party over the telephone line.
A method of notifying a caller of a forwarding telephone number from a telephone answering device in accordance with another aspect of the present invention comprises storing a plurality of predetermined call related information. Call related information with respect to a calling party is received and compared to the stored plurality of predetermined call related information. Data corresponding to a forwarding telephone number is downloaded to the calling party if a match is found with respect to the comparison.